HANDS ON: Motorola Atrix 4G [PICS]

We got our hands on one of the hottest items at CES, the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone. What did it feel like?

Atrix’s dual-core Nvidia Tegra 1GHz processor runs its Android 2.2 (known as Froyo) operating system in an unusually sprightly way, responding to each touch with a quickness that’s beyond any cellphone we’ve used. Add to that its potentially speedy 4G connectivity and its display versatility, and you have an impressive package.

Set the phone into one of its two docks, and suddenly it’s a personal computer. Its multimedia dock has an HDMI port where you can plug a monitor or HDTV. Its other dock looks just like a laptop, and there it sits like R2-D2, the brains of the outfit.

That multimedia dock has three USB ports in the back, letting you plug in keyboards, mice, or many other peripherals you’ve become accustomed to using with laptops. Once you plug it into either dock, it simply feels like a computer.

Someday, all PCs will be this way, and the line between smartphones and PCs will be forever blurred. Is the Motorola Atrix 4G “The World’s Most Powerful Smartphone,” as Motorola’s booth graphics shout out in bold electro-text? If it isn’t, it’s powerful enough, and its existence underscores the fact that having a versatile PC in your pocket is enormously compelling.